Reflections of Me: Past, Present, Future
I believe it was the great Satchel Paige who said something to the effect : 'Don't look behind you--something might be gaining on you'. Wise advice.
Past, present, and future. Three words defining timelines. We all have them. We often, as individuals, think of them as separate portions of our lives. As a conglomerate, we have the definitions of History, Current Events, and...well, there's the rub, eh? Do we even have a field of study for 'Future Events'? That could be a fun field of study! I'd go back to college, even at this late date, to take that one. Class could begin simply; use your experience of your own past, and present, and predict what events will occur for you tomorrow. Next class, check results. Then, move on gradually to next week, next year, next decade...what's that you say? Practical, real life purpose? None, of course!
Well, besides discovering whether or not there really are people who can predict the future. Like I said--fun!
As I have gotten older, and acquired more past than future, I like to think of it as history. Isn't that, after all, what history is? And if Satch was right in his adage, then, what of the adage saying Those Who Do Not Learn From History are Doomed to Repeat It? Well, of course, then there is the adage that says 'History is Written By The Winners'. I have found that one rather weak, actually--isn't it more apropos to say that history is written by the survivors? The two may not always be the same, and, if we continue in our development of planet destroying warfare, they likely won't be the same.
So, I look at my past, which has been a series of mistakes, one after the other. Now, that does not mean my life has been terrible. On the contrary, I feel I have had a good and quite successful life. As well as a fun life. Sure, not always fun, and sure, bad choices here and there, but I recovered from them by making other bad choices. Bad choices do not necessarily lead to bad results. Just results where I wonder, what if? What if? One of my favorite mind games I play with myself.
It is also a game played by people who staunchly believe something but meet logical and factual opposition, and endeavor to change the subject. Also known as the 'what about?' game.
I play it with myself, I think, to try to learn from my history, and try not to repeat some of the evil mistakes I made. I may have been luckier than some, in that my history includes a childhood of education where I was allowed to think for myself about what I was learning, and even apply some of it in real life situations. Thus gaining experience. Isn't that what history is, after all, but the acquisition of experience? Thus, the learning never stops. Or, shouldn't.
And I sometimes think, I don't have a lot of What If's. I suppose the reason for that is, I somehow managed to at least attempt most of the things in my life I wanted to do, even if they didn't always pan out the way I might have hoped. Again, however, that is experience, a set of circumstances one can learn from and apply should the next occasion merit.
Which will happen in the future, although, when it happens, that is the present. Or, as in my case, the past.
The thing of it is, what we may think of as the past is also the present, and once in the present, becomes the future. At some point in our lives, the three become one. To complicate it even more for myself, I have concluded that there is no actual present, that our timeline consists only of past and future.A minute ago is now the past, and we are now in the future.
And those darn minutes go faster every second. Or is that millisecond? I keep telling myself, keep up, old man; you're getting slow. Or perhaps I was always slow. Or, perhaps, I was always fast, and couldn't keep up with myself. If that sounds like gibberish, imagine what it's like inside my head.
WARNING: What follows will be gibberish -- grwiuyopwklaqmnbcaxplz.
What? I warned you.
One thing that pondering such a thing as time ( as it relates to my, and less specifically, THE, human character ) revealed to me is: my time is not linear. It is circular. This has nothing to do with what I was saying, but, neither do I.
Another thing it has revealed is, that no matter how strongly I might hold a belief ( and I can be very stubborn about things I hold to be true ), I can, using my past and present, actually change my mind about something. I have, in the past, held to beliefs I can now admit were wrong, and accept that; making mistakes is a part of living life, and making a mistake in no way reflects upon the character of the person making it. What will reflect upon a person's character is making a mistake, then, repeating it over and over, insisting it was never a mistake in the first place.
Yet, much of humankind does this. With great persistence. In spite of overwhelmingly contradictory evidence. This makes me wonder -- sometimes -- just what the timelines of their lives must have been. It is wonderful to be the captain of your own ship, and it is right to take pride in what you have built, but it borders on the insane to insist the ship isn't sinking despite the hole in the bottom big enough to host a party of whales. " She's weathered many a storm before and sailed on just fine; there is nothing wrong, this is how I wanted her to be! Take her patches off! She was fine without them! ".
She wasn't. We all know she wasn't. But some of the crew won't accept that. So, we have division. We have those who are willing to learn and adjust as the world around them changes, and those who won't. Those who will not only believe a lie because it fits their view of things, but cling to that lie in spite of having it revealed as one. Change, being the inevitable creature it is, is going to happen; it is the ability to adjust to change, and welcome it, that should separate humans from Nature's other living creatures. Somehow, it never happens that way. History, whomever writes it, shows us that.
It does seem that no two human beings, all things being equal, can experience similar lives and emerge with the same views of those lives. Just as no two of us, presented with exactly the same scenario, will derive the same theory of what we saw. Each of us sees through the prism of our own experience, and how we reacted to that experience. I usually try to understand what may drive persons with different views than I have, and sometimes I am successful. I can somehow manage to put myself in their shoes, so to speak, and see the world as they see it; other times, I simply cannot. In a way, I regard that as a failing of mine, although not in and of itself a failure. There are just certain places my own mind cannot go, certain justifications I cannot make.
So, we humans have divisions, and our experiences along our time lines have the greatest impact upon those divisions. I truly think that we cannot be taught to be either deliberately cruel, or deliberately kind. We can, however, be taught ideologies and tenets which can promote either one. We are nearly all exposed to some of each in our time; in the end, however, it is within ourselves to assign how we will live our own future. We should never be ashamed to admit making a mistake, nor ever be vilified for admitting it. That is progress. That is taking the past, and linking it to the present which becomes the future.
Well, that's how I see it, anyway. And, this IS my blog, so, I get to be a bit egotistical about it.. If time is indeed relative, then the way in which it is relative is in that it relates us all. Time is not money, it is experience, and it is progress. Linear or circular, it is something we cannot avoid, nor deny. I may not have walked in your shoes, but, you have never walked in mine. We can however meet and discuss the relative merits of our lives, why we are who we are, and perhaps gain a little more comprehension of those things which seem to divide how we view our surroundings.
Thanks for reading!! If you made it this far, have yourself a cookie. Hell, have a whole package, you've earned it!!
Past, present, and future. Three words defining timelines. We all have them. We often, as individuals, think of them as separate portions of our lives. As a conglomerate, we have the definitions of History, Current Events, and...well, there's the rub, eh? Do we even have a field of study for 'Future Events'? That could be a fun field of study! I'd go back to college, even at this late date, to take that one. Class could begin simply; use your experience of your own past, and present, and predict what events will occur for you tomorrow. Next class, check results. Then, move on gradually to next week, next year, next decade...what's that you say? Practical, real life purpose? None, of course!
Well, besides discovering whether or not there really are people who can predict the future. Like I said--fun!
As I have gotten older, and acquired more past than future, I like to think of it as history. Isn't that, after all, what history is? And if Satch was right in his adage, then, what of the adage saying Those Who Do Not Learn From History are Doomed to Repeat It? Well, of course, then there is the adage that says 'History is Written By The Winners'. I have found that one rather weak, actually--isn't it more apropos to say that history is written by the survivors? The two may not always be the same, and, if we continue in our development of planet destroying warfare, they likely won't be the same.
So, I look at my past, which has been a series of mistakes, one after the other. Now, that does not mean my life has been terrible. On the contrary, I feel I have had a good and quite successful life. As well as a fun life. Sure, not always fun, and sure, bad choices here and there, but I recovered from them by making other bad choices. Bad choices do not necessarily lead to bad results. Just results where I wonder, what if? What if? One of my favorite mind games I play with myself.
It is also a game played by people who staunchly believe something but meet logical and factual opposition, and endeavor to change the subject. Also known as the 'what about?' game.
I play it with myself, I think, to try to learn from my history, and try not to repeat some of the evil mistakes I made. I may have been luckier than some, in that my history includes a childhood of education where I was allowed to think for myself about what I was learning, and even apply some of it in real life situations. Thus gaining experience. Isn't that what history is, after all, but the acquisition of experience? Thus, the learning never stops. Or, shouldn't.
And I sometimes think, I don't have a lot of What If's. I suppose the reason for that is, I somehow managed to at least attempt most of the things in my life I wanted to do, even if they didn't always pan out the way I might have hoped. Again, however, that is experience, a set of circumstances one can learn from and apply should the next occasion merit.
Which will happen in the future, although, when it happens, that is the present. Or, as in my case, the past.
The thing of it is, what we may think of as the past is also the present, and once in the present, becomes the future. At some point in our lives, the three become one. To complicate it even more for myself, I have concluded that there is no actual present, that our timeline consists only of past and future.A minute ago is now the past, and we are now in the future.
And those darn minutes go faster every second. Or is that millisecond? I keep telling myself, keep up, old man; you're getting slow. Or perhaps I was always slow. Or, perhaps, I was always fast, and couldn't keep up with myself. If that sounds like gibberish, imagine what it's like inside my head.
WARNING: What follows will be gibberish -- grwiuyopwklaqmnbcaxplz.
What? I warned you.
One thing that pondering such a thing as time ( as it relates to my, and less specifically, THE, human character ) revealed to me is: my time is not linear. It is circular. This has nothing to do with what I was saying, but, neither do I.
Another thing it has revealed is, that no matter how strongly I might hold a belief ( and I can be very stubborn about things I hold to be true ), I can, using my past and present, actually change my mind about something. I have, in the past, held to beliefs I can now admit were wrong, and accept that; making mistakes is a part of living life, and making a mistake in no way reflects upon the character of the person making it. What will reflect upon a person's character is making a mistake, then, repeating it over and over, insisting it was never a mistake in the first place.
Yet, much of humankind does this. With great persistence. In spite of overwhelmingly contradictory evidence. This makes me wonder -- sometimes -- just what the timelines of their lives must have been. It is wonderful to be the captain of your own ship, and it is right to take pride in what you have built, but it borders on the insane to insist the ship isn't sinking despite the hole in the bottom big enough to host a party of whales. " She's weathered many a storm before and sailed on just fine; there is nothing wrong, this is how I wanted her to be! Take her patches off! She was fine without them! ".
She wasn't. We all know she wasn't. But some of the crew won't accept that. So, we have division. We have those who are willing to learn and adjust as the world around them changes, and those who won't. Those who will not only believe a lie because it fits their view of things, but cling to that lie in spite of having it revealed as one. Change, being the inevitable creature it is, is going to happen; it is the ability to adjust to change, and welcome it, that should separate humans from Nature's other living creatures. Somehow, it never happens that way. History, whomever writes it, shows us that.
It does seem that no two human beings, all things being equal, can experience similar lives and emerge with the same views of those lives. Just as no two of us, presented with exactly the same scenario, will derive the same theory of what we saw. Each of us sees through the prism of our own experience, and how we reacted to that experience. I usually try to understand what may drive persons with different views than I have, and sometimes I am successful. I can somehow manage to put myself in their shoes, so to speak, and see the world as they see it; other times, I simply cannot. In a way, I regard that as a failing of mine, although not in and of itself a failure. There are just certain places my own mind cannot go, certain justifications I cannot make.
So, we humans have divisions, and our experiences along our time lines have the greatest impact upon those divisions. I truly think that we cannot be taught to be either deliberately cruel, or deliberately kind. We can, however, be taught ideologies and tenets which can promote either one. We are nearly all exposed to some of each in our time; in the end, however, it is within ourselves to assign how we will live our own future. We should never be ashamed to admit making a mistake, nor ever be vilified for admitting it. That is progress. That is taking the past, and linking it to the present which becomes the future.
Well, that's how I see it, anyway. And, this IS my blog, so, I get to be a bit egotistical about it.. If time is indeed relative, then the way in which it is relative is in that it relates us all. Time is not money, it is experience, and it is progress. Linear or circular, it is something we cannot avoid, nor deny. I may not have walked in your shoes, but, you have never walked in mine. We can however meet and discuss the relative merits of our lives, why we are who we are, and perhaps gain a little more comprehension of those things which seem to divide how we view our surroundings.
Thanks for reading!! If you made it this far, have yourself a cookie. Hell, have a whole package, you've earned it!!
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